A day in the life of an animal-loving foodie

Images of El Paso and Pasta a’la Mama

by katiedidvegan on January 6, 2012

Its been a strange, strange ride here in El Paso. There are things that I love about it (SUN) and things that I hate…I’m hoping not to be here much longer. I’m too far away from family, good food, and the trees and grass that I grew up adoring. Here are a few of the things that I liked seeing, and then I’ll talk about the pasta.

So when my parents were here, I had a little more pasta than I usually do because we spent so much time catching up that dinner became “what’s already in the pantry+what’s already in the fridge.” I had some yellow bell peppers, zucchini, onions, and mushrooms in the fridge and some whole wheat fusili pasta and canned diced tomato in the pantry. We threw a pot on to boil and started to saute the peppers/onions until they were soft. We added in the mushrooms and cooked until brown, then threw in the zucchini last. I love cast iron; it distributes heat evenly and adds iron back into your food. I have a really crappy electric stove in my apartment that wants to tip pans slightly so the oil is always pooled in one side. The cast iron is the only pan heavy enough that the tilt evens out a little. We dumped the canned tomatoes and lots of Italian seasoning into a dish and microwaved it 5-6 minutes to cook it and reduce the sauce a bit. Meanwhile, the water boiled, the pasta got cooked, and it all came together. It was very fast and very easy. I usually try not to use the microwave in my cooking (although I will re-heat things with it if I ever have leftovers) but occasionally it does make things more convenient. This would ideally have been served with a kale salad, but we were low on greens, so I just handed out beers and no one noticed! 🙂

Sea salt sprinkled on was nice, but we keep sodium low by using lots of other seasoning, and I did use some vegan Parmesan...the undisputed king of cheezes. It kept the omnivore fiancee happy, so my work there was DONE! Yeah, I know the pot is dented…that’s what happens when it gets dropped too many times. I never claimed to have any grace.